Joshua was short and sweet. It seemed to be all about God fulfilling His promises to Israel. The conquest was Him giving Israel the land that He promised them, all the way back to Abraham in Genesis 12:14-17. Eighteen times in this book, God reminds Israel that it is Him who is giving them the land. Also, He told them eighteen times that He was the one fighting for them as they were conquering all these nations. He was the one delivering the enemy into their hand. The Lord is very clear to the whole nation about who is responsible for these victories. In Joshua 11:20 God even says it was Him who hardened the hearts of the enemies so they would come against them in battle, so they would be defeated.
If God's purpose in this book was to show that He keeps His promises, apparently He wanted to remind everyone of His awesomeness in the process. He made the Jordan river pile up into a wall of water so Israel could cross it (Joshua 3); He made a huge cities walls fall to the ground by blowing trumpets and shouting, after they had done nothing but walked around it for a week (Joshua 6); He threw hailstones from heaven that killed more men than the Israelite army did with swords (Joshua 10:11); He made the sun stop in the sky for an extra day so the army had time to defeat the Amorites (Joshua 10:12-14). In chapter 4 (the Jordan river scene), God tells Israel why He did such an awesome thing. He told them to build an alter by where they crossed so that when their children saw it and asked about it they would tell them what God did there "that you may fear the Lord your God forever." Crystal clear. God does these things so we remember His greatness. This brings us an interesting thing that I have noticed. The Bible seems to follow a pattern in the way God deals with people. The pattern is: He says He is going to do something great and awesome, He does that great and awesome thing, then He commands that they remember that great and awesome thing that He did. With the flood the reminder was a rainbow; with the Exodus it was feasts, days, and traditions set aside for remembrance; with the Law it was written word to remind them; now in the conquest (and I think quite a bit in times to come) it is alters that are meant to refresh their memory. That obviously makes me think of communion. God commanded that we do that "in remembrance of Him." So that we would remember the greatest and most awesome thing He ever did. More on this to come later.
In Joshua 1:8, the end of chapter 8, and 23:6-8, God stresses how important the reading and speaking of scripture is (the Law at this point). This is so that they don't forget what God has done for them. In 23:6-8 it says they should keep to what is written that they may not mix with the gods of the other nations, "but you shall cling to the Lord your God just as you have done to this day." These things make sense. If these people remembered constantly how great God was, they would not ever think about "whoring" (God's word not mine) after these worthless gods made of wood and stone.
Sadly, Joshua does not end on a good note. As they talk about who will get what land, we are told that each of them disobeyed and did not drive out all the nations from their land, but let them stay. They failed to do what God commanded them to do.
Now onto Judges...
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